Backdoor entry: 120 Class-IV staff of district govt sent home

ISLAMABAD: As many as 120 class-IV officials inducted in the local government Chitral through the backdoor have been sacked by the KP government. A village council secretary in upper Chitral told ChitralToday on condition of anonymity that even before the formation of the village councils in mid-2015 the authorities in the district government had prepared a list of their blue-eyed boys for induction on the posts of Class-IV. The 120 Class-IV employees were appointed on a contractual basis on a monthly salary of Rs14,000 each with the promise that their services would be regularized after a year or so. In order to accommodate as many people as possible, each village council was given two, three or even more Class-IV employees without any requirement, said the secretary. He said apart from the 120, the other Class-IV employees were given the jobs on a permanent basis. But in July this year, the provincial government took notice of the unnecessary inductions as it had to pay about Rs200 million under the head of salaries to these staff by that time. A team was sent to Chitral from Peshawar to probe the matter which found irregularities in the hiring of the 120 Class-IV staff and recommended their removal. The team also suggested that if there was any need to hire more Class-IV staff, the appointments should be made through the National Testing Service (NTS) by following all set rules for hiring of government employees. After the recommendations of the team, the 120 Class-IV staff members were verbally asked by those who had hired them to stop performing duties. Their salaries were also stopped about three months ago. The secretary added that now written orders have been issued from the KP local government department to dismiss the 120 employees. But he also said he had not yet received the written orders. When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Chitral Osama Ahmad Waraich confirmed to ChitralToday that the local government department was conducting an inquiry into alleged wrong inductions in Class IV.

One point they were probing was recruiting more people (especially in the contingent paid category) than the seats. All these recruitments were carried out before me and I am not aware yet of the outcome of the inquiry. But I strongly believe all recruitments should follow rules and procedures laid down by the government, said DC Waraich

It may be noted that Mr Waraich was appointed as the DC Chitral in the first week of Oct 2015.

Talking to ChitralToday, Muhammad Younus Lal, the president-elect of Tehreek Huqooq-e-Awam subdivision Mastuj, demanded an investigation into the irregularities so that those responsible behind the illegal appointments could be punished. He said the action taken by the KP government showed that rules were not followed in the induction of the 120 Class-IV, so just sending them home would not be suffice. He said the illegal move by the district government authorities had already caused millions of rupees loss to the government. He demanded that the provincial minister for local government, KP, should order an investigation to expose all those behind the illegal hiring.

—Reported by Zar Alam Khan (chitraltoday@gmail.com)]]>